The Foreign Ministry of breakaway South Ossetia said on January 2 that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s visit to Georgian villages in the conflict zone was a “demarche and an attempt to further increase tensions in the conflict zone and to express support towards destructive forces based in Kurta.”

The statement refers to the Tbilisi-loyal self-imposed government of South Ossetia, which has its headquarters in the Georgian village of Kurta in the conflict zone.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of breakaway South Ossetia] urges the international community and all the sides involved in the negotiating process to call on the Georgian side to refrain from provocative actions and to find mutually acceptable solutions in the frames of the existing [negotiating] formats and in the context of the peaceful initiative proposed by the South Ossetian side,” the statement reads, according to the OSinform news agency, which is run by the breakaway region’s state television station IR.